Books

First edition, Edition de Luxe. Number 4 of only 50 copies, signed by Edmund Dulac. Publisher's creamy vellum with leather title label. Top edge gilt. A very good copy indeed, vellum a little bowed with a couple of minor marks. Page edges slightly browned and some foxing to the preliminaries and occasionally to a plate mount. Twelve colour plates and numerous black and white drawings in the text. The tiny print run makes this one of the rarest of all the illustrated gift books. The illustrations for this book mark a new departure in Dulac's work. He enters a phase of greens and blues, views the scenes from above and afar. Hughey says, "The detailing and design of the pictures present some of Dulac's most careful and superb painting." In fact, the watercolours he produced for this book were his own favourites.

Treasure Island is an adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, narrating a tale of 'buccaneers and buried gold.' It was originally serialized in the children's magazine Young Folks between 1881 and 1882 under the title 'Treasure Island or, the mutiny of the Hispaniola', with Stevenson adopting the pseudonym Captain George North. Traditionally considered a coming-of-age story, it is an adventure tale known for its atmosphere, characters, and action. It is also noted as a wily critique of the ambiguity of morality—as seen in Long John Silver—unusual for children's literature. It is one of the most frequently dramatized of all novels. The influence of Treasure Island on popular perceptions of pirates is enormous, including such elements as treasure maps marked with an 'X', schooners, the Black Spot, tropical islands, and one-legged seamen bearing parrots on their shoulders.